BRAZILIAN CHORAL MUSIC

Richard Boukas is a choral singer, composer, arranger, guitarist, conductor, professor and decades-long ambassador for Brazilian music. His depth of experience with diverse Brazilian genres (MPB, música mineira, choro, the music of Hermeto Pascoal) alongside Renaissance choral and contemporary chamber music inform his eclectic, organic approach to composing and arranging Choral music. 

His work is noted for the following traits:

• Brazilian polyrhythmic textures melded with prima practica contrapuntal devices

• Rigorous linear integrity in independent part-writing and ability to transform music originally written for other vocal or instrumental ensembles.

• Broad harmonic and stylistic range which integrate and juxtapose choral eras from the Renaissance to contemporary, often within the same piece.

• Freedom of FORM- expanding a piece's original formal architecture with new introductions, interludes and codas.
___________________

música mineira

Sérgio Santos

The brilliant music of Sérgio Santos is praised for its effortless melodic lyricism, sophisticated harmonic vocabulary and diverse genres– most notably when merged with the rhythmically complex afro-mineiro traditions such as congado and moçambique among others.

Congado appears in a broad range of tempi and is most commonly performed in 6/8 or 4/4 meter.

Santos enriches further his infectious alchemy with odd meters 5/4, 7/8 and 9/4. 

His ease of vocal agility and dynamic percussive articulation challenge both the choral arranger and choir when adapted from his original landmark recordings:

Aboio, Mulato, Áfrico, Iô Sô, Sérgio Santos, Litoral e Interior and Rimanceiro.

All of his texts are composed by the prolific lyricist and poet, Paulo César Pinheiro, with whom Sérgio has been collaborating for nearly 35 years, co-authoring more than 250 compositions.

Sérgio Santos works adapted for choir above by RICHARD BOUKAS:

• Abertura, Áfrico, Sincretismo

Track 4 is a lyrical setting of Milton Nascimento's perennial classic, TRAVESSIA. 
 
These four choral adaptations were premiered in 2013 by the Queens College Vocal Ensemble under the direction of James John, Director of Choral Activities at the Aaron Copland School of Music.
_____________________

other Brazilian Choral

MPB 

• Senhorinha (Guinga)
_____________________

a cappella Scat Choros

• Odeon (Ernesto Nazareth)

• Remexendo (Radamés Gnattali)
_____________________

Choral directors and educators interested in performing/recording Boukas’s Brazilian arrangements and/or commissioning original works: CONTACT Richard Boukas. 

** Regentes de coro e professores/as ​que tenham interesse nas adaptações corais de Boukas e/ou em encomendar obras originais: 

Contatar RICHARD BOUKAS
____________________

SÉRGIO SANTOS and RICHARD BOUKAS in Belo Horizonte (BH / MG)

OURO PRETO, Minas Gerais

BEATLES MOTETS